Preliminary Enquiry

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Timing and Deadlines!! < | Preliminary Enquiry | > The Application Package}

Making the Preliminary Enquiry

To make your preliminary enquiry to a university department, all that is needed is a short note directed to the departmental secretary requesting information on the graduate programme. You do not need to go into great details about your interests or why you are interested in the particular university, and you don't need to direct it to a particular professor. Please make sure that:

1. The letter looks good and does not contain any spelling or grammatical errors. Remember it will form part of your application file at some point. Typed is preferable to handwritten.
2. The letter has your address on it. If the letter is handwritten, make sure your address is legible, particularly the postal code (I know that I have a bad habit of writing '4's that look like '6's.)
3. Your name is legible. If your signature is a quick scrawl make sure that you print your name under it so that we know who we are dealing with.
4. If you have a unisex name, give some indication of gender - or don't blame us if Mr. Kim Cooper or Mr. K. Cooper is addressed as "Dear Ms. Cooper"! (The convention is to print your name under your signature followed by your title in parentheses - thus L.A. Nicholls (Miss))
5. If using email to request application material, please make sure that you include your mailing (snail mail) address. You would be amazed at the number of people who leave it off their emails!

Begin requesting information early in the fall prior to when you want to attend graduate school. (If you are applying for the fall of 2007 you should begin requesting information in the fall of 2006.)

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Timing and Deadlines!! < | Preliminary Enquiry | > The Application Package}